I reckon £5billion is just the start. You could build a fair capacity of solar and wind for the amount that's wasted on nuclear._________________"Buddhists say we come back as animals and they refer to them as lesser beings. Well, animals aren’t lesser beings, they’re just like us. So I say fụck the Buddhists" - Bjork

I dislike the idea of foreign powers building and having de-facto control over critical infrastructure such as power stations.

I dislike the idea of the UK government building nukes, because I suspect that the costs will balloon EVEN MORE RAPIDLY than if built by the private sector.

And whilst this proposed nuke SHOULD be able to produce electricity a bit cheaper than Hinkley, It will still be very expensive if compared to wind.

Wind power should get cheaper as more is deployed and we gain from mass production and greater familiarity with the technology.
Nuclear seems to be getting more expensive as each new generation seems to be more costly and more complicated.
I cant foresee nuclear power ever being adopted on a big enough scale to bring the price down._________________"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"

Indeed, yesterdays news of course but the problems remain, and are hardly an advert for new nukes_________________"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"

I suspect that foreign control would in practice extend to operation.
I would presume that the many computerised sub-systems would have some sort of remote shut down concealed in the software.
In time of war, international tension, or dispute, I would expect that the reactor would shut down.

The place name was pronounced "will-fa" on the TV news._________________"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"

The £5billion mentioned as the UK's share presumably means Japan will indeed have to cough up at least £13billion. And then the contract will ensure the British taxpayer makes up the undoubted shortfall beyond €18billion.

If it were 'only' that, (!!!!) then it represents a huge missed investment opportunity in safe long-term power generation._________________"Buddhists say we come back as animals and they refer to them as lesser beings. Well, animals aren’t lesser beings, they’re just like us. So I say fụck the Buddhists" - Bjork

Huw Whatsit on the BBC News is a Welsh speaker and he pronounces it as Willva, but with a Welsh accent of course, so that must be right.

My MP is forever telling me that governments shouldn't invest taxpayers money because they never get it right but here we go, proving him right again, I suppose. But he prides himself that always votes for the Tory government so I'll suppose that he'll plod through the lobby on their side again despite his reservations.

With the price per megawatt that the user will be paying it will be a very good investment for the government though!! Always assuming that the system will still be going by the time that it finally gets built and commissioned._________________As Steve Keen puts it: “Capital without energy is a statue; labour without energy is a corpse.” Economics ignores this which is why economics is broken.